Location-dependent services in a mobile communication system

ABSTRACT

A mobile communication system arranged to broadcast information containing the specific geographic location of a base station. The information is broadcast on a broadcast channel of the base station to an associated mobile station. A mobile station user desiring to activate an application may activate the application by transmitting a service request from the mobile station to a service request center. Prior to transmission of the service request, the information containing the specific geographic location of the base station is attached to the service request permitting the application to be carried out based upon the specific geographic location.

This application is the national phase of international applicationPCT/F197/00646, filed Oct. 24, 1997 which designated the U.S.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The invention relates to a mobile communication system which is arrangedto broadcast general information on a cell broadcast channel of a basestation, and to a mobile station.

BACKGROUND ART

Various service announcements can be transmitted to mobile stations onthe basis of a service request of a subscriber in mobile communicationsystems. Generally, these chargeable services are most often arranged tobe provided from outside the actual mobile communication system. Bymaking a call to a required service number, a mobile subscriber is ableto order a selected service announcement to be delivered to the displayof the mobile station, for example. Of these individual services e.g.weather forecast, traffic announcements, local news and other localservices, such as taxi ordering and service station announcements and soon are services where the mobile subscriber selects the desiredannouncement on the basis of the geographical area. The mobilesubscriber generally wishes to have the service announcement related tohis/her current location which varies because of the mobile nature ofthe mobile subscriber.

In the new European digital GSM mobile communication system, it is alsopossible, in addition to speech and data connections established onnormal traffic channels, to send short digital data messages, calledshort messages, in the control or signalling channels of the systemalong with the actual signalling. The GSM mobile network is connected toa separate short message service centre SMSC which thus establishes aconnection between a specific short message network and the GSM network.The short message service centre SMSC located outside the mobile networktransmits short messages to mobile subscribers and from a mobilesubscriber (A subscriber) to another mobile subscriber (B subscriber) orto any unit capable of receiving short messages outside the mobilenetwork. The subscriber inputs a short message to be sent by thekeyboard of the mobile station or by a computer connected to the mobilestation. The mobile station sends the short message on the control orsignalling channel to the base station from which the short message isfurther transferred via the mobile switching centre to the short messageservice centre SMSC. The service centre SMSC forwards the short messageto the short message network. Correspondingly, the short message servicecentre SMSC transmits mobile-terminating short messages on the controlor signalling channel.

The short message facility has been utilized in services provided formobile subscribers. One short message service is the sea weatherforecast service maintained by the Meteorological Office in Finland. Amobile subscriber makes a call to the telephone number of the seaweather forecast and indicates the geographical area from which theweather information is wished to be known. The subscriber interrupts theconnection to the service number and after a while receives the requiredweather information as a short message which is displayed on the displayof the mobile station. As weather information is permanently associatedwith a geographical area, in the sea weather forecast service theFinnish sea area is divided into eleven areas from which the subscribercan select the desired one by dialling the telephone number of therespective area. A problem with the above-described selection of thegeographical area of the service is that the geographical areas arerather large in order to avoid a too long selection list, wherefore theservice announcement has to be formed to be general to cover the wholeselected large geographical area. In some services, such as in the shortmessage service informing of traffic jams, in order that the serviceannouncement is useful, it is required that the service can be focusedaccurately to the rather small geographical area requested by thesubscriber. Furthermore, the problem with the prior art short messageservice described above is that the subscriber is not able to requestthe service without setting up a mobile speech connection on a normaltraffic channel for making it possible to inform the subscriber in realtime of the selection alternatives of the geographical area.

FIG. 1 shows a simplified block diagram of the pan-European GSM mobilecommunication system. The mobile station MS is connected via the radiopath to one of base transceiver stations BTS, such as the base stationBTS1 in FIG. 1. The base station system BSS comprises a base stationcontroller BSC and base stations BTS controlled by the BSC. Usuallyseveral base station controllers BSC are controlled by a mobile servicesswitching centre MSC. The mobile services switching centre MSC isconnected to other mobile services switching centres. Via a gatewaymobile services switching centre (GMSC) the GSM is connected to othernetworks, such as the public switched telephone network PSTN, to apublic land mobile network PLMN, to an integrated services data networkISDN or to a service centre SC, such as the short message service centreSMSC. The operation and maintenance centre OMC monitors the operation ofthe whole system. The subscriber data of the mobile station MS is storedpermanently into a home location register HLR and temporarily into avisitor location register VLR in the area of which the mobile station MSis located at the time. The location information of the mobile stationMS is stored into the visitor location register VLR at the accuracy ofthe location area LA. The geographical area monitored by the visitorlocation register is divided into one or more location areas LA. One ormore base stations BTS can operate in each location area.

The base stations BTS continuously broadcast information on a broadcastchannel about themselves and their environment, such as a base stationidentity code BSIC, adjacent cell information and a location areaidentifier LAI broadcast on a paging channel. The cell broadcast centresituated at the base station controller BSC, for example. manages themessages of the cell broadcast channels of the base stations BTS. Thecell broadcast centre transmits via the base station controller BSC thebroadcast messages assigned for each individual base station BTS on thebasis of initial information supplied by the operator. The broadcast onpaging channels and cell broadcast channels, for example, has no addressnor is encrypted but intended to be received by all mobile stations MSwithin the geographical area covered by the transmission of the basestation. For a more detailed description of cell broadcast, reference ismade to GSM recommendation GSM 03.41 “European digital cellulartelecommunication system (Phase 2); Technical realization of ShortMessage Service Cell Broadcast (SMSCB)”.

FIG. 2 shows a signalling diagram of a prior art transfer of a shortmessage from a short message service centre SMSC to a mobile station.The SMSC sends a short message to the GMSC of the GSM network via atransit network, when required (message 1). The GMSC inquires thelocation of the mobile station from the home location register HLR of Bsubscriber (message 2). In message 3, the HLR returns to the GMSCinformation indicating the visitor location register VLR in whose areathe mobile station of B subscriber is situated. The GMSC sends a shortmessage further to an MSC according to the address of the VLR (message4). When the short message is received by the MSC, the MSC inquires bymessage 5 from the VLR routing information for the short message. TheVLR responds to the inquiry by sending to the MSC routing instructionsfor the location area LA indicated by stored location information of themobile station of B subscriber (message 6). The MSC sends a shortmessage to the mobile station MS of B subscriber via the base stationcontroller BSC and the base station BTS (message 7). The short messagetravels transparently through the mobile network from the SMSC to themobile station MS.

FIG. 3 shows a signalling diagram of a prior art transfer of a shortmessage in the opposite direction, that is, from the mobile station MSto the short message service centre SMSC. In message 31 the mobilestation MS sends a connection request to the base station BTS, and afterhaving received a response, sends a short message via the base stationBTS and the base station controller BSC to the MSC (message 32). Inmessage 33 the MSC sends a short message to the gateway MSC whichforwards the short message via the transfer network, when required, tothe SMSC (message 34). From the SMSC the short message is delivered tothe addressed receiver.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide universallyintelligible location information in a mobile communication system foruse as a parameter for an application dependent on the geographicalarea.

This new way of providing location information for an application isattained with the method comprising a step of receiving a broadcastsignal on a cell broadcast channel of a base station by a mobilestation. The method is characterized by the steps of broadcastinglocation information identifying the geographical location on the cellbroadcast channel of the base station, and utilizing this locationinformation in an application dependent on the geographical location.

The invention further relates to a mobile communication system where abase station is arranged to broadcast general information on a cellbroadcast channel and a mobile station is arranged to receive on a cellbroadcast channel of a base station. The system is characterized in thatthe mobile communication system is arranged to broadcast locationinformation identifying the geographical location on the cell broadcastchannel of the base station, and to utilize this location information inan application dependent on the geographical location.

The invention further relates to a base station comprising at least onecell broadcast channel for broadcasting general information to mobilestations within a coverage area of the base station. The base station ischaracterized in that the base station is arranged to broadcast on thecell broadcast channel location information identifying the geographicallocation.

The invention is based on the idea that the base stations broadcastcontinuously on their cell broadcast channel location information whichis received by the mobile station and utilized in an applicationdependent on the geographical location.

The base station of the invention broadcasts on the cell broadcastchannel location information, such as the co-ordinates and place name ofthe base station site. The mobile station of the invention receives abroadcast and picks the location information from the transmission. Thelocation information is then used as a parameter in an application whichis dependent on the geographical location. In a preferred embodiment ofthe invention, when the mobile subscriber wishes to request a servicewhich is dependent on the geographical area, such as a serviceannouncement from a service unit of the public switched telephonenetwork, for example, the mobile subscriber provides a service request,in the form of a short message, for example, and attaches the pickedlocation information to this service request. The mobile station sends aservice request via the mobile network to the service unit, such as ashort message to the short message service centre from which the shortmessage is forwarded to the required service provider. On the basis ofthe location information included in the service request, the unitproviding the service selects the service requested by the subscriber,such as a service announcement, and sends this service announcement tothe mobile subscriber to the mobile network, such as a short message viathe short message service centre.

An advantage of the mobile communication system is that the locationinformation to be processed is already in an universally intelligibleformat.

A further advantage of the mobile system of the invention is that themobile subscriber need not determine the geographical area he/she islocated in when ordering the service.

Still another advantage of the mobile communication system of theinvention is that the service request can be sent in a short message,for example, as the delivery of the request does not requiretransmissions in two directions.

Furthermore, the mobile communication system provides the advantage thatit will be easier and faster to request services dependent on thegeographical location, such as service announcements, in comparison witha prior art implementation.

An advantage of the method of the invention is that a serviceannouncement can be made to cover only a small geographical area.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

The invention will be explained now in more detail in connection withpreferred embodiments, with reference to the appended drawings, wherein

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a mobile communication system,

FIG. 2 shows a signalling diagram of a transfer of a short message froma short message service centre to a mobile station,

FIG. 3 shows a signalling diagram illustrating a transfer of a shortmessage from a mobile station to a short message service centre,

FIG. 4 illustrates service announcement request cases when the mobilestation moves in the cellular network area, and

FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram of a preferred embodiment of the methodaccording the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

The present invention can be applied in connection with any mobilecommunication system. Below the invention is explained in more detail inconnection with the pan-European GSM mobile communication system. FIG. 1shows a simplified structure of the GSM mobile communication systemexplained above. The service centre SC shown in FIG. 1 can be a generalpurpose short message service centre. For a more detailed description ofthe GSM system, reference is made to GSM recommendations and to The GSMSystem for Mobile Communications, M. Mouly & M. Pautet, Palaiseau,France, ISBN:2-9507190-0-7.

In this application, the concept ‘plain language location information’refers to universally intelligible location information which does notrequire a separate interpretation key or decoding table, for example.The understanding and utilization of this plain language locationinformation are not intended to be restricted within the mobilecommunication system but may be universally utilized by any externalsystem or device.

In the following, the invention is explained in more detail in the lightof the preferred embodiment of the invention with reference to FIG. 4.In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the service request fromthe mobile station MS is transmitted in the form of a short message.FIG. 4 shows an example of the travel of the mobile station MS acrossthe coverage areas of two base stations BTS1 and BTS2. The base stationsBTS1 and BTS2 broadcast on their cell broadcast channel informationintended to be received by all the mobile stations MS. In accordancewith the present invention, the broadcasting contains locationinformation. The base station BTS1 broadcasts plain language locationinformation obtained from the cell broadcast centre, in this exemplarycase the geographical co-ordinates 61,345.25,110 of the location of thebase station BTS1 in the latitude.longitude format, for example.

The location information broadcast from the base stations BTS iscontrolled by the cell broadcast centre that commands the base stationsto broadcast location information defined by the operator. It is alsopossible to arrange a connection from the cell broadcast centre to anoperator's network planning system from which the required informationis obtained for providing the location information of the invention foreach base station BTS. The cell broadcast centre maintains the locationinformation used by the base stations for broadcasting. The locationinformation in the invention is specific for each cell, in which caseeach base station BTS embodying the inventive functionality broadcastslocation information assigned to the specific base. The locationinformation can be different for each base station, in which case eachbase station is instructed to broadcast its own specific locationinformation This location information individual for each base stationcan be the coordinate information of a base station location or of thegeographical centre of a cell, such as 61,345.25,110 where the locationis given in the latitude.longitude format, or similarly, a co-ordinatepresentation as in some other co-ordinate system in a suitable format,or the name of the base station location, such asetelä-satama.helsinki.uusimaa.finland where the location name is givenin the accurate_location information.town.country format. The individualbase station specific location information can also be formed as asuitable combination of the examples mentioned above. The locationinformation according to the invention can also be can be arranged sothat the base stations situated at a specific area have the samelocation information. Then all the base stations situated at thespecified location information area broadcast this same locationinformation on their cell broadcast channel. The location informationcovering the area can be e.g. the co-ordinates of the geographicalcentre of the area presented in a suitable co-ordinate system and in asuitable format, or the geographical name of the geographical centre ofthe area, as in the format presented above in connection with the nameof the base station location, the name of the area, such ashelsinki.finland, in which case the name of the area is given in thetown.country format. The location information of the area can also besome suitable combination of the above, for example.

When the mobile station MS moves in the area C1 of the base station BTS1shown in FIG. 4, it receives and demodulates the signal on the cellbroadcast channel of the base station BTS1. In accordance with theinvention, the mobile station MS picks from the message the locationinformation which in the case of this example is 61,345.25,110 andstores it automatically to a memory location arranged for this purpose.

Furthermore, when the mobile subscriber is within the coverage area ofthe base station BTS1, the mobile subscriber decides to order someservice announcement, such as a local traffic announcement. The mobilesubscriber starts to form a short message for providing a servicerequest dependent on the geographical area. The body of the servicerequest is formed in the mobile station MS as in prior art. Inaccordance with the present invention, the mobile station MS retrievesfrom the location information memory location the last stored locationinformation 61,345.25,110 which is substantially in the same format ason the cell broadcast channel of the base station. The locationinformation 61,345.25,110 is attached in the short message to theservice request body without changing the presentation of the locationinformation. The mobile station MS sends the service request provided inthis way as a short message to the base station BTS1 that furthertransmits the short message to the service provider identified by thereceiver's telephone number via a mobile network, possibly via a transitnetwork and a short message service centre SMSC.

In the unit providing the service a service request short message isreceived and the service announcement requested by the subscriber isselected on the basis of the location information included in theservice request. As the location information included in the servicerequest is in plain language, the service unit does not need a separatecode key or a conversion table or the like to understand and utilize thelocation information. The service unit sends the selected serviceannouncement to the subscriber in the mobile network as a short message,a data transmission or in any suitable form, for example. It is notessential for the invention in which form the service announcement is inthe end delivered to the mobile subscriber. The traffic announcementcovering the location 61,345.25,110, delivered as a short message istransmitted to the mobile subscriber in the manner explained inconnection with FIG. 2 above.

When the mobile station MS moves to the area C2 of the base station BTS2shown in FIG. 4, it starts at the same time to receive on the cellbroadcast channel of the base station BTS2. Similarly as explained inthe case of BTS1, the location information indicated by the cellbroadcast centre is broadcast on the cell broadcast channel of the basestation BTS2. In this exemplary case, the location information of thebase station BTS2 is 61,345.25,230. The mobile station MS receives thisbroadcasting and picks from the message the location information61,345.25,230 and stores the information to the memory location reservedfor this purpose in place of the previous location information61,345.25,110.

When the mobile subscriber is within the coverage area of the basestation BTS2, the mobile subscriber decides to order again a serviceannouncement dependent on the geographical area, this time a localweather forecast, for example. The service request as a short message isprovided as explained above in connection with a service requestprovided in the area of the base station BTS1. The information61,345.25,230 about the location information memory location is attachedto the service request without changing the presentation. The servicerequest is sent and transmitted to the service provider as explainedabove. The service unit selects the service announcement required by thesubscriber on the basis of the location information attached to theservice request and delivers a weather forecast covering the location61,345.25,230 to the mobile subscriber as shown above.

As can be seen from the above, the mobile station MS receives only onone cell broadcast channel of the base station at a time so that thelocation information of the area where the mobile station is situatedand thus the activity of the invention is also unambiguous when themobile station MS is situated in the overlapping coverage area of two ormore base stations BTS.

FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram of a preferred embodiment of the method ofthe invention. In step 51, the base station, such as BTS1, broadcastslocation information on its cell broadcast channel as explained above.In step 52 the mobile station MS picks this location information fromthe broadcasting received by it. The mobile station MS or a computerpossibly connected to the mobile station MS stores the locationinformation to a memory location especially reserved for this purpose(step 53). When the subscriber wishes to have a service announcementdependent on the geographical area from the area the subscriber issituated at the moment, the subscriber starts to form a short message inthe mobile station MS (step 54). In step 55 the location informationretrieved from the memory location is attached to this short message,the presentation of which information is not substantially changed. Instep 56 the mobile station MS sends the short message provided in thisway to the base station BTS from which the short message is furthertransmitted via the base station controller BSC, the mobile servicesswitching centre MSC and the gateway MSC to the short message servicecentre SMSC, as shown in FIG. 3, but differing from the prior arttransmission of short messages to the effect that the locationinformation as described in the invention is attached to the servicerequest including the short message. The short message is transferredfrom the short message service centre SMSC further to the unit providingthe service. In step 57 of FIG. 5 the unit providing the service selectsa service announcement dependent on the geographical area on the basisof the location information delivered in the service request. In step 58the unit providing the service sends the requested service announcementto the mobile station MS that ordered the service. The serviceannouncement can also be delivered to the mobile station MS as a shortmessage with an address or as a data transmission. The transmission ofthe short message included in the service announcement corresponds tothe prior art transmission of a short message as explained earlier inconnection with FIG. 2.

In another embodiment of the invention, the base stations broadcastlocation information of the invention on their cell broadcast channeland the mobile stations receive this transmission and pick the locationinformation from the transmission as described in connection with thepreferred embodiment above. In the secondary embodiment, several memorylocations are reserved for the mobile station MS for storing locationinformation. Some of the memory locations are reserved for automaticstoring and some for storing at the mobile subscriber's command. Thestoring of location information can be arranged to the effect that theautomatic storing is carried out when possible to a free memory locationif the location information differs from the location information storedlast. If no memory locations reserved for automatic storing is free, thenew location information is stored in place of the memory location ofthe location information of the oldest storing. In this way there isalways at least one location information in the memory of the mobilestation MS and most often a list of the location information that themobile station MS has last received from the broadcasting channels ofthe base stations. The storing of location information carried out atthe mobile subscriber's command is started by the mobile subscriber fromthe keyboard of the mobile station, for example, when the subscriberwishes to store the location information of the location area to apermanent memory location for a possible later use. By means of storingcarried out on the basis of the control of the mobile subscriber, thesubscriber can store permanently into the location information memorylocation information about the locations from which the subscriber laterwishes to order service announcements although the subscriber was notlocated in this location at the moment of ordering.

When the subscriber wishes to order a service announcement dependent onsome geographical area, such as local news, the subscriber starts toform a short message for providing a service request. The locationinformation stored in connection with the last automatic storing isattached to the body of the service request. The mobile subscriber mayat this stage change the location information into some other locationinformation, into one of the earlier stored location information or someof the location information directed by the subscriber to be stored, forexample. The selection of the location information can be arranged insuch a manner that the subscriber scans the location information storedearlier on the mobile station display and selects from them the requiredones which are attached to the body of the service request instead ofthe first suggested location information. The mobile station MS sendsthe service request provided in this way in the same manner as explainedin connection with the preferred embodiment. The selection and deliveryof the service announcement to the mobile station are also carried outas explained above.

In a third embodiment of the invention the base stations BTS broadcaston their cell broadcast channel location information in accordance withthe invention as was explained in connection with the preferred andsecondary embodiment. When the mobile subscriber wishes to order aservice dependent on the geographical location, the mobile subscriberstarts to form a service request. The mobile station MS receives asignal of the cell broadcast channel of the base station BTS anddemodulates it. The mobile station picks from the message the locationinformation as described in the invention and attaches it to theprovided service request without changing the presentation of thelocation information and without storing the location informationtemporarily. The mobile station MS sends a service request as a shortmessage, for example, to the required unit providing the service in thesame way as described above in connection with the preferred andsecondary embodiments. The unit providing service selects the suitableservice on the basis of the location information and delivers it to themobile station MS in some manner suitable for the purpose.

In a fourth embodiment of the invention, the mobile station MS sends theservice request as a data transmission. This embodiment differs from theabove preferred and secondary embodiments only in that the servicerequest with the location information of the invention is provided inthe mobile station MS in a form required by the data transmission. Thetransmission of the service request to the base station is carried outas a prior art data transmission from the mobile station to the basestation At the beginning of the data transmission, the mobile station MSrequests the base station of a traffic channel for the datatransmission. The base station BTS assigns to the mobile station a freetraffic channel on which the mobile station MS sends the servicerequest. The service request delivered as a data transmission istransmitted to the unit providing the service that selects on the basisof the location information contained in the service request, theservice announcement required by the mobile station. The selectedservice announcement can be delivered to the mobile station MS as a datatransmission, for example by the provided data connection or as a shortmessage at the end of the data connection.

The selection of a service announcement described above in connectionwith various embodiments in the unit providing the service on the basisof the attached location information can be arranged in a manner bestsuitable for each service. For example, in a microcell environment, itis not sensible to make a specific weather forecast for each cell areaeven if each base station had its specific individual locationinformation. Then the local weather forecast delivered to the mobilestation is selected in such a manner that the location notified by thelocation information is included in the area covered by the weatherforecast. But the traffic announcement, for example, is preferablyarranged to be covered by a rather small area. As a fast moving mobilesubscriber may have already left the area indicated by the locationinformation before the delivery of the service announcement, the trafficinformation of a small area can be delivered for the locationinformation area of the service request and for the traffic informationarea surrounding this area, for example.

The base station of the present invention does not require great changesto the base station structure of the prior art. The base station of theinvention is arranged to broadcast on its cell broadcast channel thelocation information indicated by the cell broadcast centre. The basestation broadcasts the indicated location information until the cellbroadcast centre notifies new location information is to be broadcast ordirects the base station to stop broadcasting the location information.

The mobile station of the present invention can be implemented withsmall changes to the prior art mobile station which is capable ofreceiving the broadcasting broadcast by the base station and shortmessages or a data transmission and also of sending short messages ordata transmission. The processing of short messages or datatransmissions by the mobile station can also be accomplished by acomputer connected to a prior art mobile station or a communicator whichis a combination of a computer and a minicomputer, a so-calledintelligent telephone. In that case the mobile station MS receives thebroadcasting of the base station BTS and demodulates the received radiosignal. The computer connected to the mobile station MS picks from themessage the location information, stores it when necessary and attachesthe location information to the service request provided by it. Themobile station MS sends the service request provided in this way via thebase station BTS to the required receiver.

The drawing and the specification related thereto are only intended toillustrate the idea of the invention. In its details, the method and themobile communication system of the invention can vary in the scope ofthe claims. Although the invention is above explained mostly inconnection with the GSM system, it can also be used in other mobilecommunication systems, such as CDMA systems.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for providing location information foran application associated with a mobile communication system, the mobilecommunication system including at least one of a base station and amobile station, the method comprising: broadcasting a broadcast signalon a broadcast channel of the base station, the broadcast signalincluding location information identifying a specific geographiclocation of the base station; receiving in the mobile station thebroadcast signal including the specific geographic location of the basestation; and utilizing the specific geographic location information inthe application, so that the location of the mobile station isdetermined on the basis of the specific geographic location and sent ina service request message to a service unit which selects a servicerequired by the mobile station as a response to the location informationincluded in the service request message and provides the selectedservice of the mobile station.
 2. A method for providing locationinformation for an application associated with a mobile communicationsystem, the mobile communication system including at least one of a basestation and a mobile station, the method comprising: broadcasting abroadcast signal on a broadcast channel of the base station, thebroadcast signal including location information identifying a specificgeographic location of the base station; receiving in the mobile stationthe specific broadcast signal including the specific geographic locationof the base station; and utilizing the specific geographic locationinformation in the application, wherein the application is dependent onthe specific geographic location, the utilizing comprising: (i)providing a service request message containing the location informationin the mobile station; (ii) sending the service request message from themobile station; (iii) selecting a service required by the mobile stationin a unit providing the service as a response to the locationinformation included in the service request message; and (iv) providingthe selected service for the mobile station.
 3. A method for providinglocation information for an application associated with a mobilecommunication system, the mobile communication system including at leastone of a base station and a mobile station, the method comprising:broadcasting a broadcast signal on a cell broadcast channel of the basestation, the broadcast signal including location information identifyinga specific geographic location of the base station; receiving in themobile station the specific broadcast signal including the specificgeographic location of the base station; and utilizing the specificgeographic location information in the application, wherein theapplication is dependent on the specific geographic location, theutilizing comprising: (i) providing a service request including thelocation information in the mobile station; (ii) sending the servicerequest from the mobile station, (iii) selecting a service announcementrequired by the mobile station in a unit providing the service as aresponse to the location information included in the service request;and sending the service announcement to the mobile station.
 4. A methodaccording to claim 3, wherein the providing further comprises: pickingthe location information from a signal of the cell broadcast channel ofthe base station; providing a service request in text format; andattaching the picked location information to the provided servicerequest.
 5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the picking furthercomprises: separating the location information from the received signalof the cell broadcast channel; and storing the location information inthe mobile station.
 6. A method according to claim 3, wherein thesending a service request comprises sending the service request from themobile station as a short message.
 7. A method according to claim 3,wherein the sending a service request comprises sending the servicerequest from the mobile station as a data transmission.
 8. A mobilestation comprising means for receiving a cell broadcast channel of abase station the mobile station further comprising means for pickinglocation information identifying a specific geographic location from thecell broadcast channel of the base station and means for utilizing thelocation information in an application dependent on the geographiclocation so that the location of the mobile station is determined on thebasis of the specific geographic location and sent in a service requestmessage to a service unit which selects a service required by the mobilestation as a response to the location information included in theservice request message and provides the selected service for the mobilestation.
 9. A mobile station comprising: means for receiving a cellbroadcast channel of a base station; means for picking locationinformation identifying the geographic location from the cell broadcastof the base station; means for utilizing the location information in anapplication dependent on the geographic location; means for providing aservice request in text format; means for attaching the locationinformation to the service request; and means for sending the servicerequest.
 10. A mobile station according to claim 9, wherein the meansfor picking the location information from the cell broadcast comprises:location information identification means for separating location from areceived broadcast signal; and at least memory location for storing thelocation information.
 11. A mobile station according to claim 10,wherein the mobile station comprises: at least one memory location forstoring the location information automatically; and at least one memorylocation for storing the location information permanently on the basisof the command given by the mobile subscriber.
 12. A mobile stationaccording to claim 9, wherein the means for attaching the locationinformation to the service request comprise a computer or an intelligentpart connected to the mobile station.
 13. A mobile communication systemincluding (i) a base station arranged to broadcast general informationon a cell broadcast channel and (ii) a mobile station arranged toreceive on the cell broadcast channel of the base station, wherein themobile communication system comprises: means for broadcastinginformation identifying a specific geographic location on the cellbroadcast channel of the base station; and means for utilizing thislocation information in an application dependent on the specificgeographic location so that the location of the mobile station isdetermined on the basis of the specific geographic location and sent ina service request message to a service unit which selects a servicerequired by the mobile station as a response to the location informationincluded in the service request message and provides the selectedservice for the mobile station.
 14. A mobile communication systemcomprising: a base station arranged to broadcast general information ona cell broadcast channel, the general information including locationinformation identifying the geographic location on the cell broadcastchannel of the base station; and a mobile station arranged to receive ona cell broadcast channel of the base station; wherein the mobile stationis further arranged to utilize the location information in anapplication dependent on the geographic location by providing a servicerequest comprising location information of the mobile station, andtransmitting the service request containing the attached locationinformation from the mobile station to a unit providing the requestedservice; and wherein the unit providing the requested service isarranged to transmit to the mobile station a service selected on thebasis of the location information.
 15. A mobile communication systemaccording to claim 14, wherein the location information broadcast by thebase station is responsive to being controlled by a cell broadcastcentre.
 16. A mobile communication system according to claim 14, whereinthe service request is in the form of a short message.
 17. A mobilecommunication system according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the servicerequest is in the form of a data transmission.
 18. A mobile stationcomprising: means for receiving a cell broadcast channel of a basestation; means for picking location information identifying thegeographic location from the cell broadcast of the base station; meansfor utilizing the location information in an application dependent onthe geographic location of the mobile station; means for providing aservice request containing the geographic location of the mobilestation; and means for sending the service request to a service unit ona network side in order to obtain a location-dependent service.